In this week of Thanksgiving in America, I'd like to look back to the Pilgrims from whom the festival derives. They have become lost in the current ferment of the United States, a later political creation, but 400 years ago a body of people set sail on the Mayflower (well, they actually set sail on another ship first) to join other settlers on the shores of the New World.
Many were from a church in Holland that had been formed from Christians fleeing England, and they have become known as the Pilgrim Fathers. The majority of the Church in Leiden, Holland stayed back, as did their Pastor. It was the younger, more adventurous who set sail, yet the harsh conditions took many of their lives in the opening years of settlement. Thanksgiving was born out of gratitude for their first Harvest.
John Robinson, their Pastor, never did the journey from Holland (though he had previously fled England of course). Yet his wisdom and determination played a large part in the Mayflower story and I want to look at a few things he said or wrote: first this, from a letter to a sympathetic English nobleman who had supported them throughout:
It is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again . . . we hope not to recover our present helps, neither look ever to attain the like in any other place in our lives . . .
This quotation reminds us of wisely adopting a pilgrim spirit in this world. Covid-19 has left everyone wanting to recover normality - these pilgrims understood they were giving up a lot in order to go forward.
As the disciples might have done when they left their nets by Galilee to follow Jesus. With Jesus most of the good things are in front, not behind.
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